84. Holiday in Cambodia- Street Barber.

On a recent trip to Cambodia I passed by a barber on Street 240 Phnom Penh near my hotel. I approached him and pointed to my camera, he smiled and nodded while pointing to a sign saying “$1 haircut”.

I love the simplicity of his operation; it’s like a “pop-up store” that can be taken down at the end of the day. No appointment books, no computer screens, no garish hair products on display. It’s just him on the street armed with some scissors and a mirror.

Further reading on barbers and Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

83. Prema Love- A modern salon.

Meet Francesco Ruggerino as we talk about his salon Prema, the Australian Hairdresser's Council and what a modern salon should be.

This article was publish first at Style Street.

First of all congratulations on being nominated “best new salon design 2010”, could you tell me a little bit about the thoughts behind the design?

Unfortunately we did not win it, but we were finalists. Prema Salon was built to house all of our Education and Creative work. We have a large salon at Bondi and the new Surry hills salon is designed to facilitate the career path growth of our people through Education, Photographic and Management. The salon is a full working salon, Education space and Photographic studio. All our Website, Communications and Production are done in house through this salon.

I have noticed the use of raw and recycled material in the salon, how important is sustainability to Prema Salon?

We use raw materials to promote not only environmental sustainability but also our career and business sustainability. Everything we do is centred on sustainability and how we can continue to make thing work successfully time and time again over a long period of time.

Francesco, your not a hairstylist, how did you get involved in the hairdressing business?

I met a hairdresser and bought a salon with him. Over time we went our own separate ways but I learnt that my strength was in bringing hairdressers together successfully and contributing organisational skills to creatives and helping them with numbers, figures and money.

What advice would you give people who are about to open a salon of their own? What advice would you give to those who are opening their second salon?

First Salon – open somewhere where you can build a clientele quickly, make the salon look hot so people notice you and give people extraordinary service.

Second salon – Know exactly why you are opening the salon and remember why when things get tough, promote your good staff and get rid of any problem staff before moving onto salon number 2.

A salon in today’s market needs to be more than just functional and a place where you can buy shampoo. What is your opinion are the key ingredients to a modern salon?

You have to offer a point of difference in the way it looks and feels and the way that you perform hair, the service needs to better than anyone else’s and you need to do extra for people so as to give them a reason to come back to you. Also, you need to look after your people so that they want to be there, this will give your salon the edge it needs.

You run two salons, how do you keep and motivate staff? What do you look for when recruiting new staff members?

Keep staff by creating a warm and friendly environment and culture, focus on their career growth and help them to become better at what they do.

When recruiting new people I look for people who love hairdressing and people who no matter how good they are they still want to be better. I also look for people who not only talk the talk but also walk the walk. I like humble people that are really good at what they do.

You’re a member of the Australian Hairdressers Council, could you tells us a little about that and what your involvement within the council is?

I spoke to Anthony Wynn-Hollscher, the founder and chairman of the A.H.C about 3 years ago re the A.H.C Immediately I was inspired by the concept of bringing us together and creating a more successful industry. I have been incredibly lucky to be able to work alongside some of the most admirable people in our industry whose dedication and commitment is contagious. I currently sit on the board as the Vice Chairman and together with other members of the working committee we are now rolling out the AHC pilot programme.

What do you feel are the problems facing the hairdressing industry right now?

We are not attracting enough good young kids to the industry. This is the main thing we need to address. If we can attract more people that have a strong desire to do hair then we can excel as an industry.

Your web page, Facebook, twitter, how has the Internet helped your business?

It has helped by creating a more widespread awareness of what we do and also it has helped attract great staff and clients.

Prema

Bondi Junction p 9389 8080

Surry Hills p 9360 8080

77. St Martin De Porres- Patron Saint of Hairdressers.

I'm not a religious guy but awhile back I wrote an article about St Martin De Porres, patron saint of hairdressers which got a tonne of traffic here at Heads Will Roll. Well, as it happens Novemeber 3rd 2010 will mark the 371st anniversary of his death. So I'm dedicating this blog post to him.

This is his story.

At the age of twelve, Martin had to choose a trade to help earn a living for himself and his mother. Martin trained to be a barber, which in those days meant not only cutting hair and beards, but also letting blood, treating wounds and fractures, and even prescribing medicine for the more ordinary cases of illness. A barber was in fact, at the same time a surgeon, doctor and pharmacist. Martin could have earned a great deal of money and lived in comfort with his mother, but the same charity which drove him as a small child, now moved him to devote himself to the poor. On a typical day, he set out at daybreak and along the way between his home and the shop, stopped for long periods of time in the church of St Lazarus, serving at many Masses. After having spent the whole day in the effort to perfect himself in his profession and use it to help the poor, he shut himself up in his room to feed his soul with spiritual reading and prayer. 


75. OOH LA LA. BEST HAIR AT PARIS SPRING FASHION WEEK 2011.

For regular readers of Heads Will Roll will know that I love a little bit of hair braiding, so you will not be surprised to hear that my pick of Best hair at Paris Spring fashion week 2011 goes to Guido Palau for Alexander McQueen.

And here’s what Guido said “: “There’s a nod to paganism…and the idea of getting back to nature,” said Guido Palau of his basket-woven hairpieces, which looked like the sewn-together husks of one’s childhood cornhusk dolls. “There are a lot of artisanal straw elements in the dresses and collars,” he added, explaining the look”.

And also...

Also special mention goes to Orlando Pit for his inspiring homage to Bettie Page. It’s such a simple idea but so well executed. Makes me want to invest in some clip on bangs.

And lastly...

And lastly, to the model with the most drastic hair change Carmen Kass pictured above. Her big chop came just before the Balmain show by one of my favourite hairstylist Sam McKnight. But wait there’s more, then she had Guido colour her red just before the Louis Vuitton show.

To read more of my hair reviews of other fashions weeks click here.

70. A story about Hair Extensions

This is a very long post, like make yourself a cup of tea long.

On a typically hot day on West Mahal Road in a town called Tirupati, South India, a thin woman with big brown eyes named Amrita Mayekar is walking purposefully – making her long pilgrimage to Lord Venkateswara at one of the many temples. Today, not unlike every other day she is wearing a bright fuscia Shalwar and matching kameez in the tradional manner. Her offering to Lord Venkateswara today will be her crowning glory; her long lustrous hair that has been freshly washed this morning with gooseberry oil and is braided neatly. Little does she know that this simple religious act will reverberate around the world.

We follow Amrita Mayekar’s journey to one of the many temples in the area and watch her take a dip in a tank called Swami Pushkarani, located outside the temple. Legend has it that Swami Pushkarani was the tank of Lord Vishnu and is a sacred tank in which visitors must bathe before being allowed in the temple. Now freshly washed, she is ready to take part in a religious ceremony called 'Tonsuring', where women must shave off their hair as a sacrifice to the God Vishnu. The woman named Amrita Mayekar, wearing her bright fuchsia Shalwar and matching kameez believes that taking part in this ceremony is a symbol that she is willing to give up her pride and vanity, and to ask the Gods for health and happiness in the future.

Amrita Mayekar sits cross-legged on the ground and bows her head before Mr. Ravi Shankar seated on a small plastic chair. He is one of the 600 official barbers who work for the temple and it’s administration, Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanamsand (or TTD as it’s known locally). He earns R10,000 (£140) a month shaving up to 35 men, women and children’s heads each day. He is also entitled to free accommodation for his family, free food cooked at the temple, and a bus pass to travel up to the hill upon which the temple is located. Mr. Ravi Shankar wets her hair and ties the strands into bunches. He then makes brisk work out of shaving Amrita Mayekar’s hair. Occasionally pausing, the barber dips his razor into a cold soapy bucket to remove the fine strands of hair then goes back to the business of shaving. Even the tiny hairs on her nape are clean, hair-free and glistening. The whole ceremony takes five minutes.

Amrita Mayekar’s hair is collected by various temple workers who bundle it into big burlap sacks, which are already filled with other hair, and is taken to a hut-shaped warehouse just behind the temple's main office – a short walk away. These sacks containing Amrita Mayekar’s wet hair are placed next to hundreds of over flowing sacks with similar contents. Then, young temple workers go about their daily business by placing thousands of these bundled wet hair sacks on the rooftop where all the hair is laid out side by side and sun-dried.

Once all the hair is dry, it is sold to a well spoken young man with a goatee called Mr. Balsara of SDTC Exports. The exact amount is uncertain, but it is estimated that Mr. Balsara buys a burlap sack for 4,200 Rupee (£60), filled to the brim with the ceremonial offering. One of these sacks containing Amrita Mayekar’s hair is taken to a factory in Bungladore, where Indian woman in white lab coats and face masks sit and have the daunting task of sorting the tonnes of hair into colour tones. In another part of the factory young women are sorting hair into different lengths.

From here the hair is boiled in 120-degree water, dried again and loaded onto ships destined for another factory in the city of Zhaoyuan, China, where Amrita Mayekar’s hair is mixed in with Chinese hair. It is then sorted and chemically coloured into 54 different shades of red, blonde and brunette. Some of this pre-coloured hair goes to a company called Hangzhou Starshine Pharmaceutical in China, where the hair is mixed with animal parts to be broken down into an amino acid, which is then used in some bakery goods.

From China, some of Amrita Mayekar’s hair is packaged into long plastic bags and sold to a well-groomed Englishman called Mr. Gold, who owns a company called Great Lengths. Mr. Gold ships some of Amrita Mayekar’s hair along with millions of other wefts of hair in various lengths and colours to all parts of the world, including the U. S. A., Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, the Caribbean, Japan, Mexico and most of Europe. Some of Mr. Gold’s friends say he deals with a product called “black gold” or virgin untreated hair.

Mr. Gold Sells Amrita Mayekar’s hair to a wholesale shop called ‘Hair Development’ situated on the Mile End Road in Stepney Green in East London, where some of her hair is shelved and displayed. A charming hairdressing salon owner called Simon Forbes of ‘Antenna Hair Salon’ buys the hair and expertly places strands into some of his celebrity clientele coifs. Today a woman named Tamsin Williams proudly steps out of ‘Antenna Hair Salon’ after her hair is cut, styled and colored, a thicker, shinier and healthier mane of hair than she walked in with. A huge smile is on her face as she sees her own reflection in a shop window with the dream hair she always wanted. One thousand pounds well spent for her upcoming wedding day.

The rest of Amrita Mayekar’s hair is whisked away to the other side of the world, to 245 West 18^th Street, New York, to a place called ‘Picture Ray Studios’ by legendary hairdresser Guido Palau, sporting his trademark five-day-growth beard. He will curl, crimp, tease and colour match the wefts of hair, then bind them into the hair of a svelte model in a whimsical outfit, who goes by the name of Daria Werbowy. Her new hair is piled high and wide into a modern day Elizabethan hairdo with high drama. A giant fan is moved in closer to Daria, to create a gentle breeze, the effect on her hair and blouse has a fluid graceful movement, all in front of the sharp eye and camera of a photographer named David Sims. With every flash that pops and whistles, Daria Werbowy moves into a different pose, staring straight into the barrel of David Sims’ camera as he makes rapid-fire suggestions to Daria while a song called “VCR” by the band XX is blaring on the sound system. At a later date, at a building called Conde` Naste, near Times Square New York, seated at a sleek desk, a rather stern woman with dark glasses, sharp bobbed hair and a stoic expression will approve these photos and the elegant hair that Guido Palau has created. They will be a part of fashion spread in a magazine called Vogue.

Back to Amrita Mayekar in Tirupati, India – she made a pilgrimage to a temple to perform a ceremony to put aside her own pride and vanity, and to ask the Gods for health and happiness in the future. As it turns out not only her health and happiness is achieved. At T.T.D, auctions of human hair fetched revenue of $25 million for the temple in 2007. TTD in turn gives free accommodation in Tirumala and Tirupati to pilgrims. It also provides free meals. The canteen has a capacity to feed 20,000 pilgrims a day. TTD also has more than 12 colleges and schools, as well as two hospitals.

And what of the estimated circulation of 1.2 million Vogue magazines distributed monthly around the world. The fashion industry it inspires and supports makes $400 billion a year and creates millions of jobs for young creative’s such as make-up artists, fashion designers, hairdressers, illustrators, fashion writers, magazine editors, fashion buyers, advertising agencies, and fashion bloggers, to name a few. The American cosmetics and beauty industry alone totals over $20 billion in sales and is dominated by hair and skin care products that are heavily advertised in print and on television, creating even more jobs.

Little does Amrita Mayekar know how much happiness she has given, and financial benefit to the town of Tirupati and the rest of the world. Her simple selfless act has and will reverberate around the world.

68. Confindente.

This post was originally written for Style Street.

1. In historic building known as The Royal Arcade located off the Bourke Street Mall, home to Gog and Magog and up the winding stairs. How did you find the gem of a space?

I found this gorgeous space by being patient and sifting through lots of Melbourne real estate! The right space is paramount to the success of every business and this particular space needed a lot of love. Royal Arcade has a wonderful history and has managed to keep a little quirk about it which I love. Each of my clients comments on how relaxed they feel here at Confidente and that's what I wanted – goal achieved.

2. Melbourne loves a hidden little secret. How have you advertised your salon? Has twitter, facebook and your website helped? And how do you utilizes the Internet for your business?

I advertised initially on a small scale but word of mouth is the ultimate in this business. I did approach a lot of hotels and that really helped me to get on my feet. An online presence in the form of a website is crucial as people utilize the internet more. Twitter has been a lovely surprise as my clients are quite tech savy & I 've definitely had referrals through this medium. As for Facebook, I've chosen not to have a business page – I don't think it's so relevant to the style of business I run.

3. I’m noticing a worldwide trend for boutique, smaller salons, what are your thoughts on this? And what are the advantages for the operator and the client?

The Boutique Salon absolutely has its place! Clients want to feel special, have their time respected, connect with their Hairdresser and feel at home. From an operators perspective you get to utilize products that you believe in, achieve an optimal result as you're not rushing and really get to know your clients. We've create a space in which they can be themselves – communicate freely and not feel that the clock is ticking. Confidente is relaxing as there's no excess noise from lots of hairdryers or people talking over one another. In this environment my attention is 110% on them. A hair appointment becomes a pleasant part of your day and that is critically important.

4.Where have you worked previously?

I've worked at all levels of the industry from huge numbers to boutique and they have all proved challenging. This broad based experience has taught me so much and groomed me to be the hairdresser I am today. 6 years ago I was working for a company of approximately 150 – 200 staff where I was responsible for the training of over 100 hairdresser whilst running salons – yet here I am today focusing on the one client at a time. You have to be open to new experiences to learn new things and continue to build your skills.

5.How long have you been doing hair and when did you have your first hair “epiphany”?

I've been behind the chair for 14years and my hair epiphany was as simple as Hair is my fabric. I was working on a model and started to intertwine her locks with wool and into her costume – it looked sensational and from there I was obsessed! I enjoy making people feel great. I get a great sense of satisfaction from seeing the effect my work has on the clients. The effect is almost immediate. For some it's a smile, for others a transformation in their confidence! I get a kick out of it either way.

6.For readers who want to open a salon for themselves…what advice would you give to the up starters?

The advice I would give to anyone opening their own salon is to make sure it is your passion. It will be lots of hard work and you have to really want it. In particular the one on one salon will only succeed if you have a continued drive to improve yourself and have very strong skills all round. You can't be lazy. Ensure that you are capable of EVERYTHING - Hairdressers used to have strong skills in all areas and this has changed. If you want to succeed on your own it is mandatory.

7.Top five favorite tools (Example: wigo hairdryer, favorite product etc)

I could not live without a Parlux Blowdryer and Pin Curl Clips in my kit. Followed closely by a Linen Thread for gorgeous modern Hair Up, a nice fresh cut throat blade and Kevin Murphy Session Spray.

8. What do you feel are the problems facing the industry right now? (Example; recruitment, money, public opinion et al)

Unfortunately the Hairdressing Industry has been plagued by those who don't take it seriously as a profession. If the people working in the industry don't see it as a profession, how can we expect our clients and industry partners to see us as professionals? The removal of hairdressing from the skills shortage list will (I hope) see the return of serious professionals to the trade..

9. My research tells me you were a ‘rep” for a haircare company, could you tells us more about that? And how did you make the transition from hairdresser to rep and back to salon owner?

When you believe in a product it's a dream position for those that don't like to be surrounded by the same four walls and growing any business is satisfying. Whilst I loved the contact with salon teams and business owners, I missed the creative release that hairdressing provides.

11. What are your plans for the future?

To develop my concept and my skills set further and to offer the highest level of service to my clients that the industry has to offer..

10. What products do you use in the salon?

Ooh where to start?! I colour with Revlon Professional and L'Oreal, I style with Kevin Murphy, American Crew and Everescents. I like to work with various ranges so that I can cater to everyone as I'm very fussy! Everescents is the latest addition to Confidente, they are the ONLY Australian made, Certified Organic professional hair care range on the market. There are a lot of organic claims out there but once you dig deeper you often find that they're not certified or that there is an overseas parent company. I respect Everescents Philosophy, it's a great product and enables me to look after my clients health, the environment and most importantly to support Australian trade.

Confidente Salon.

Confidente Salon website.

email info@confidente.com.au

Confidente on Twitter

Telephone (03) 9663 2082